


We're a thousand miles from comfort

by purple_cube



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-22
Updated: 2014-01-22
Packaged: 2018-01-09 16:45:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1148362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purple_cube/pseuds/purple_cube
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peeta looks at Effie, then Katniss, and then back again. “They didn’t manage to break any of us.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	We're a thousand miles from comfort

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the LJ comm comment_fic, for the prompt "unbroken". Title taken from the song Rather Be by Clean Bandit.

 

When he hears a sharp knock, Peeta thinks that it must be Greasy Sae, dropping in early to collect the day’s batch of bread. He’s already halfway there when he realizes that she’s never bothered knocking before.  
  
The heavy door swings easily under his guidance, revealing his visitor. Her arms are folded around her plain white blouse, dark blonde hair cropped close to her scalp. Her gaze is fixed on some point in the distance, and he struggles to attach a name to the side profile presented to him.  
  
But then, she turns, her lips pressed in a thin line. Even without any exaggerated color or shaping, he’d recognize that pout anywhere.  
  
“Effie!”  
  
She greets him with such a soft voice that he almost wonders if his memory is playing tricks on him again. “Peeta.”  
  
His concern must be visible, because she immediately averts her gaze.  
  
He takes a quick look behind her. There’s no sign of life from any of the other houses, despite the Victors’ Village and its periphery now housing almost the entire population of District 12. Peeta clears his throat, fixing a smile to his lips as he swings the door further away. “Come on in, Effie.”  
  
Her mouth curls ever so slightly, but her eyes only flit briefly towards him as she brushes past.  
  
Once inside, she pauses, unsure of where to go.  
  
Peeta takes the lead, ushering her into the kitchen. “I was just finishing up today’s batch. This has somehow become the District’s unofficial bakery.”  
  
“That’s very kind of you.”  
  
He gestures at the table, and she lowers herself timidly into one of the chairs.  
  
“Not really,” he says with a shrug. “I find it therapeutic. And when I first came back, I didn’t want to spend much time outside…you know, around other people…” He stops when he sees a flicker of hurt cross her face. But a moment later, her expression is blank again, so he continues. “I needed something to do, stuck in the house all day, so I struck up a deal with Greasy Sae. I bake while she cooks, and between us we feed all the builders and any newcomers that come with the trains.”  
  
She doesn’t say anything for a few moments, so he wanders back to the oven to check on the loaves. Her voice sounds almost like her own when she does finally speak. “I saw a lot of building work on the way here.”  
  
“People are really trying to make it work here. After everything that’s happened, it seems the right thing to do,” he replies.  
  
“And Katniss?”  
  
He looks up, his eyes drawn involuntarily to the window – and to the house opposite. “She’s okay,” he says honestly. “She’s doing okay.”  
  
“What does she do with her time?”  
  
“She hunts, mostly. Provides game and fish for Sae’s meals.”  
  
“And Haymitch?”  
  
Peeta laughs. “I guess you could say Haymitch is the one constant in our lives. Still drinks. Still sleeps for most of the day.”  
  
His mind drifts back to the previous night, when the three of them had had dinner in near-silence, and he almost misses Effie’s whispered response.  
  
“He was a rebel.”  
  
“Have you seen him, you know, since…”  
  
She shakes her head. “He tried to talk to me during the, um, the execution. But I couldn’t.”  
  
“Is that why you’re here now?” he asks gently.  
  
“It’s one reason.”  
  
He’s about to ask what the others might be, but a figure drifting past the window catches his attention.  
  
He doesn’t miss Effie’s jump at the sound of the door opening, or the way her rounded eyes flicker to him in horror.  
  
“It’s just Katniss,” he says quickly but doesn’t think that she believes him until the younger woman appears at the entrance to the kitchen.  
  
Their visitor hovers, confusion clouding her expression and clearly unsure of what she has just interrupted. And then her gaze settles on the hunched figure sat at his table, anxiety replaced first by curiosity, and then by recognition.  
  
“Effie.” He knows her well enough to know that she isn’t displeased, but her quiet demeanor probably doesn’t come across as welcoming either. Effie confirms his suspicions, dropping her gaze that little bit lower.  
  
He manages to exchange a glance with Katniss before she drops her bag and crosses the room, taking a seat beside their former escort.  
  
“You look beautiful,” she tells her, managing to surprise them both.  
  
Effie shakes her head profusely. “No.”  
  
“You do,” Katniss insists, louder this time. “Your hair, it’s the same shade as Peeta’s, and the style really suits the shape of your face.”  
  
Effie doesn’t say anything, but she at least stops shaking her head. He smiles at Katniss in encouragement, before remembering that the oven needs turning off. He’s still lifting out the tray of bread when Effie finally responds.  
  
“Everyone does this in the Capitol now. At first it was only the vulnerable people, the ones who thought the rebels might seek retribution on them. But then, it became more popular to return to beauty base zero, and no one wanted to stand out from the crowd anymore. It was inevitable that I had to follow suit…but I feel so exposed.” Her last line is barely above a whisper.  
  
“You really do look beautiful, Effie,” Peeta says with a smile as he turns.  
  
She looks up for the first time since Katniss entered, taking them both in. And for the first time, she looks like Effie, so proud of her victors.  
  
“I’m so sorry.”  
  
Peeta shakes his head. “It wasn’t your fault.”  
  
“I didn’t know, I didn’t know any of it.”  
  
“We know, Effie.”  
  
She looks at Katniss as if to say that she doesn’t get her point. Maybe he doesn’t either, because her next sentence surprises him. “But maybe if I had known, I could have helped. I could have stopped _something_ …I could have helped,” she repeats meekly.  
  
 _Does she think that she could have stopped what happened to him?_ He certainly doesn’t think so.  
  
“We’re all still here, aren’t we?” Peeta asks gently. He looks from her to Katniss, and then back again. “They didn’t manage to break any of _us_.”  
  
And maybe _they_ means different things for Effie, but he’s sure that she understands the sentiment, all the same.  
  
“Would you like to stay a few weeks, Effie?”  
  
Her eyes flutter away. “I wouldn’t want to intrude,” she replies softly.  
  
“You wouldn’t be,” Peeta says with a kind smile. She doesn’t see it though, so Katniss leans across the table to reach her. Gently, she places her hand on the older woman’s arm.  
  
“We’d like you to stay, Effie.”

 


End file.
